I'm Sure That Wasn't My Fault
by LeonaWriter
Summary: In which two people who weren't originally there dance at the Yule Ball, and it is also revealed that Dumbledore inlisted help for the third and final task. Twoshot.
1. Yule Ball

I'm Sure That Wasn't My Fault

Part One – Yule Ball (crystals not included)

Disclaimer: Owns neither Harry Potter or the Labyrinth

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Halfway across the room, the various Champions were either eating or dancing. In the cases of some and their friends, both. In most cases, partners danced to slow music, one in another's arms and letting them lead, spinning in circles. Robes and dresses fluttered in the wind of their movements.

Leaning enigmatically against the wall nearby the staff table is a figure around whom people's attention wavered, their eyes sliding off and around him as he watched them from close by.

A figure with crossed arms and dressed in a sleek, golden-cream coloured dress rolled intelligent green eyes.

"Really, Jareth. I thought that you'd already tried fairy tail balls. They don't work, if you remember."

The watching figure laughed lightly, a single intricate eyebrow rising in challenge.

"My dear Sarah, I think you'll find that none of this was actually my doing. I was invited."

"_Really_. So who did you steal this time?"

"Do you trust me that little, even after all this time?" At the incredulous look sent his way, he continued. "No one. As I said, I was invited. This happens to be a school, you know."

"I know. I happen to work here, or will soon, anyway."

Another twitch of the expressive blond eyebrow.

"The headmaster," Jareth continued as if she hadn't said anything, "asked me for a favour. I thought that it would be fortuitous to see who it was that I might be dealing with when the time came."

Sarah followed his quick glance at an old man with a long beard and purple dress robes resting momentarily at his place not too far from them at the head of the staff table. Albus Dumbledore. The man smiled and raised his glass of pumpkin juice at them in toast.

With a sigh, she shook her head in bemusement, and was surprised when hands that were not her own found her waist and shoulder.

"Care for a dance, my lady?"

Opening her eyes, she looked up at him. A smile tugged at her mouth.

"Since you ask so nicely, I may."

He chuckled, and they joined the swirling masses of graceful (and sometimes not so graceful) dancers. Even though most could not see them, there did seem to be a strange sort of unknown magic in the air.

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AN: First of a twoshot. Imagined purely on the idea of 'What things do Harry Potter and Labyrinth have in common?'. The second chapter came first in my head, then I remembered this. Oh, and yes... those are references to the fourth book. I was thinking of events as they happened in the book while writing this. Um. Takes place at an indefinite time after Labyrinth.


	2. A Glitch In The Works

I'm Sure That Wasn't My Fault

Chapter Two – A Glitch In The Works (it wasn't the goblins, either)

Disclaimer: Still owns neither. Owns this idea, though.

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Jareth had, of course, been watching in the stands since before the task had even officially begun. It only stood to reason that a king would survey his country, a master craftsman watch his work at work.

He had excelled when it had come to creating magically similar devises that reversed gravity. The way that the champions had sometimes needed to seem to double back on themselves to get to where they wanted to go had come naturally to him. The sphinx, on the other hand, had been a stroke of luck and brilliance. It was rather hard to find them Underground nowadays, and had been for a few hundred years. It had come as rather a shock to find one living happily Aboveground like he had.

Sarah had been rather put out about the spiders, though. He had had to reassure her that it was rather unlikely that while it was not as though the beasts were exactly going to be afraid of the wizards like normal insects, they weren't likely to last too long up against weapons such as wands, either.

For the most part, everything had gone as planned. There had been a number of incidents, but nothing that the wizards themselves had not been able to deal with. Wizards could deal with wizard trouble, after all. . .

What he hadn't expected was for things to go wrong so close to the end. If he had been the type, he would have said that it hadn't been fair.

People weren't supposed to go off vanishing in his labyrinths or mazes simply without warning and without any provocation from him, personally.

And so now here he was, glaring at a piece of ground a few feet away which was still wet from the previous night's rain despite the heat of the summer sun, as if glaring would bring back the child (children) that had been stolen.

Sarah was going to be livid.

Speaking of which . . .

Footsteps nearby brought with them a being whose aura sung half of humans and part of Faerie. They did not sound pleased.

The Goblin King sighed.

"I suppose that you are going to say something inane about this being me getting a taste of my own medicine, are you?"

The aura faltered. Didn't come any nearer, didn't come any closer.

"Actually, I wasn't. I was going to say that this is what you get for being stupid, but whatever. I guess you can't just break someone of a bad habit like that so quickly."

Neither spoke as the assorted teachers gathered around them, asking questions and interrogating. Nothing they said could or would help those who did not understand Labyrinth magic. Once they finally broke free from the crowds that had congregated at the mouth of the maze, Sarah glared at the twists and curves of his handiwork.

"You know, Sarah, I _am_ quite sure that it wasn't my fault. . ."

"I know," she said abruptly. "Perhaps if it had been I wouldn't be so worried."

The girl did have quite the soft spot for Champions.

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AN: And so it ends. Unlikely to continue. Was originally meant to have a lighter tone, but oh, wel. . . not much you can do when it's a scene like that.


End file.
